Gender, Stress and Coping in the U.S. Military. Volume III, Performance,

The systematic study of the effects of trauma on womens health is important for women in all branches of service. There is a close interplay between performance, health and psychosocial factors in responding to trauma, disaster, and combat. Understanding the gender specific responses associated with traumatic stress is important for the development of command policy, training scenarios, and medical care procedures. Available data on responses to various traumatic events can serve as an analog to aid in understanding some of the potential effects of war and combat on military women. The higher base rates of psychiatric illness in women, their greater social supports, higher distress after exposure to death and the grotesque may be expected to alter responses to combat, deployment, and military contingencies compared to that in men. In addition, differences in fatigue, chronic stress tolerance, effects of sleep deprivation and variation of stress effects across the menstrual cycle can increase or decrease stress tolerance and health effects. This volume contains personal observations from a number of distinguished women who currently hold, or have held, senior leadership positions in both traditional and non-traditional fields for women. They provide important insights into the challenges encountered in the transition from an all male force to a gender integrated one. The final speakers, civilian historians, provide an outside perspective on the history of women in the military.